


The Night Before

by MaeveBran



Category: Outlander (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 17:39:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5214740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeveBran/pseuds/MaeveBran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the night before and Claire is thinking and drinking. Then Jaime comes to tell her about what they have to do to make the marrigae completely legal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Night Before

I sat in the chair in my room in the inn, drinking the bottle of spirits before me. I was expected to marry a near stranger to save my life. After the way Captain Randall had punched me in the stomach and had the Corporal kick me while I was down, I had no doubts that if I ever came in his control again, I would not survive the encounter. So my choice was to die or to marry. I had consented to marry as where there is life there is hope. Hope that I might make it back to the stones and to my husband, Frank.

Frank was the complication in all of this. Was I committing adultery and bigamy by marrying Jamie tomorrow? Or was the fact that this was nearly two hundred years before either Frank or I would be born mean that I was in fact free to marry? This marriage would predate that of mine to Frank. But I still felt married to him. It had been less than a month ago that I had kissed him good bye as he went to Reverend Wakefield's and I went to Craig na Dun to pick some floral specimens. Everyone here assumed that I was a widow and I wasn't so sure if I was or wasn't.

I poured another glass of the potent potable before me and took a sip. My thoughts swirled around and around. Was I actually free to marry? Should I tell Jamie before we marry? Should I tell him afterward? And what on earth was I going to do with a virgin Highlander? Was I going to have to play instructress in the sexual arts to a man I had only met a month ago? Never mind that I found him attractive and kind. Could we just marry by contract and vows and not consummate the marriage and still have it legally binding? I knew no answers to any of these questions. They had plagued me since we had returned to the inn several hours ago. 

I listened as the men settled into the tap room and to supper. I should go down and eat something, but I could not face the men. I finished the drink in my cup and was contemplating another when there was a knock on my door.

I got up and answered the door. There stood my finance, Jamie not MacTavish but I knew not what. Oh, God, I didn't even know what my last name would be on the morrow.

“Mistress Beauchamp,” Jamie said formally.

“Mr. MacTavish,” I replied equally as formally. He blushed at the nom de guerre.  
“I have a few things to discuss with you before tomorrow,” he pushed on.

“Come in then,” I said as I stepped back from the door. “Or would that ruin my reputation?”

“Oh it might damage your reputation a bit,” he said as he blushed a bit deeper. “But what can they do? Make us marry? As we are doing that tomorrow already, I think we can risk it.”

Jamie walked in and looked around. There were two chairs by the table and he sat at one and I took the other. He seemed at a loss for words.

“You wanted to talk to me?” I prompted.

“Oh, aye,” he said as he looked down at the table and blushed hard. “It's about the legalities of our marriage….”

“Don't tell me you're already married?” I joked.

“If I was, I'd hardly be a virgin still,” he replied.

“Oh, right,” I said.

“But it is along those lines,” he said seriously. “In order for the marriage to be legally binding and not subject to annulment, we have to …. have to… uh….”

“You mean we have to consummate it?” I suggested. Clearly I was going to have to play the instructress after all.

“Yes,” he said. “With witnesses.”

“Witnesses?” I exclaimed. “We have to have sex with people watching?”

“Not actually watching,” he explained. “They will remain below in the taproom but they will be awake, watching our door, and listening to confirm that we have made things legal.”

Jamie looked down at the table for a moment. Then he looked up at me.

“That's a relief,” I said. People, witnesses, down below I could handle. I couldn't handle in the room with us.

“I thought you deserved to know ahead of time,” he said. “Dougal is taking no chances that our marriage could be legally challenged.” Jamie got up and walked toward the door. “I didna want you surprised tomorrow.” He had his hand on the door nob.

“Thank you,” I said as I got up and walked to him. “For telling me. You're right, it would have been a shock tomorrow.”

He reached a hand out and placed it on mine. “You're going to be my wife, I'll do everything in my power to make you not regret that decision.”

“Thank you,” I said again. “I hope you never regret this, as well.”

 

“I won't,” he said as he raised my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. Before I could respond, he dropped my hand and left the room.

I returned to the table and the glass of alcohol I had left there. My thoughts were even more chaotic than before. The thoughts about whether I would be cheating on Frank had suddenly gone from the theoretical to practical. Could I do it? Could I have sex with this twenty-three year old virgin that I had come to care for and keep my heart separate so I could leave him when I got the chance? I wasn't sure so I downed the glass and poured another. Then another. And soon I was too drunk to think and I passed out in peaceful oblivion.


End file.
